Bikes, bikers and blowhards in NYC, make the news

Bike Lanes are a clear indicator of respect for cyclists on the streets and weather the city is taking bikes and those using them for transport, seriously.

Marty’s comments are an even clearer indicator that motorists don’t respect cycling as a viable mode of transportation and should never “stigmatize” motor vehicles. Oh, yeah and DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is some sort of crazy zealot who has an anti car agenda.

Is it 700cmx or freestyle fixed gear? What is behind the new craze of doing tricks on fixed gears? NY Times spokes column reporter J. David Goodman finds out:

The Slowly Fading Cult of the Messenger
by J. David Goodman

(photo by: Raymond McCrea Jones/The New York Times)

The immortal class is looking a little more mortal these days.

With fewer packages to deliver and an increasing number of urban riders draping themselves with shoulder bags and cutting through traffic on track bikes, some say the cachet of being a bicycle messenger is wearing off for a new generation of street riders. It certainly is not the same as it was in 2001, when Travis Culley could write in his ode to the urban cowboy, â€œThe Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power,â€ that:

I am sometimes seen as a social misfit, a freeloader, a junkie, but I am also envied for the color, the vigor, the picture of America I can find while they push their way through the weekday treadmill routine.

Joseph Lanza, a messenger of six years who goes by the street name Joey Krillz, said that he had recently noticed a shift in attitude among some of the younger riders, especially those who prefer brakeless fixed-gear bikes.

â€œPreviously, in the scene, if you were a courier, you were it,â€ Mr. Krillz, 29, said. â€œBut now itâ€™s like, no one cares if youâ€™re a messenger anymore. Itâ€™s all about the tricks.â€

As fixed-gear bicycles have become de rigueur for young urban cyclists in cities around the world, a new type of riding has grown up in the past two years, riders say. With so many now braving traffic in Midtown, the radical aspect of just being in the street has disappeared and a new style is emerging, one that appears more tethered to skateboarding and BMX bikes than to messengering.
read the rest of the article here.